Will Arnott wear the ‘C’ next season?

Jason Arnott (left) is all smiles after a goal earlier this month against the St. Louis Blues. (Sanford Myers / The Tennessean)

Will the Predators have a new captain next year? It seems like a question worth pondering as the Predators head into the offseason.

Coach Barry Trotz first raised my eyebrows on that front during the regular season, when he was asked when the team might see a Nashville draft pick become a captain.

Instead of offering up the expected response that Arnott was the captain and the Preds would worry about a new captain when Arnott was no longer there, Trotz mentioned that everything gets reevaluated during the offseason.

Then on Thursday, when he was wrapping up the season with media, Trotz gave a lengthy description of Arnott as captain. He praised him in some areas and said he was improving in others, but used the less-than-overwhelming phrase “the last two years he’s done a decent job’’ and again said that he would reevaluate everything (including the leadership group) during the offseason.

Trotz’s complete comments are below. See if you are left with the impression that a change is possible:

“When we had the team that got turned over a little bit (in 2007) and had a lot of young players and a couple of older guys, Jason was the guy who had the big voice in the room and felt that he could take up that leadership role. It probably wasn’t exactly something that … it doesn’t come naturally to him. But he’s grown in that area and worked hard at doing the right things more often, and the last two years he’s done a decent job.

“Some guys … I’ve talked with Steve Yzerman with Team Canada, and when he was made captain at Detroit, he was uncomfortable for a number of years. It takes time. It’s something that … There are very few guys that you can just say, ‘Hey, put a C on and you’re the captain.’ Some guys are comfortable with it. Jason, I would say, has become fairly comfortable with it. But at the same time, there are still areas that … Every captain or leader leads in certain ways. You talk to people in Detroit and they say Nick Lidstrom leads on the ice. When he does talk, everybody is listening. So everybody leads in their own way and you have to be comfortable with it.

“It’s no different than if you’re put in an elevated position in the lineup. You have to learn to be comfortable with it. Leadership (is something) we look at every year and we basically go by it every year. As I say, I’m reevaluating everything on our hockey team because I know we can be better.’’

If the Preds do decide to make a change in captaincy – and that’s complete speculation at this point — I would consider Shea Weber the lead candidate to wear the C next season. While both Arnott and Weber have one year remaining on their contracts, Arnott will be a 36-year-old unrestricted free agent at the end of the 2010-11 season and Weber will be a 25-year-old restricted free agent. So assuming the Preds find the means to re-sign Weber, he’s much more likely to be here long-term than Arnott. Ryan Suter would probably be another candidate to wear the C if the team made a change, as would Dan Hamhuis if he re-signs.